Areas of support 

The Distinguished Innovator Grant Sustainability seeks to support innovative research within agriculture, food, industrial and environmental biotech*, carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies as well as nitrous oxide and methane emissions, and quantum technologies. The intent is to stimulate the evaluation of ideas that may lead to the development of new products or systems, devices and technological platforms in relation hereto. Particular focus will be placed on projects covering sustainable and high yielding agriculture, sustainable food for healthy diets, and climate change mitigation technologies to support the green transition.

The Distinguished Innovator Grant Health seeks to support innovative research within med-tech, industrial biotech*, pharma as well as quantum technologies. Furthermore, the intend is to stimulate the evaluation of ideas that for example could lead to the development of new medical treatment, disease prevention, diagnostic methods as well as new health technologies, devices and technological platforms. Particular focus will be placed on projects covering cardiometabolic diseases** as well as infectious diseases and preventive solutions hereto.

The projects described must have a clear outlook to scaling potentials and later commercialisation possibilities. 

*According to the OECD definition of biotechnology: the application of science and technology to living organisms, as well as parts, products and models thereof, to alter living or non-living materials for the production of knowledge, goods and services.

** Cardiometabolic diseases including for example: heart attack, stroke, peripheral arterial disease, obesity, diabetes and fatty liver disease.

Eligibility 

The research project must comprise a main applicant and has the option of including co-applicant(s) when deemed relevant. Rules of eligibility are outlined in more detail below: 

The Main Applicant: 

• The main applicant must be a senior faculty member or researcher employed at a research institution or hospital/clinic in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, or Sweden). 
• It is required that the main applicant has a personal proven track record within innovation, i.e., previous experience of academic innovation projects and experience of establishing patents and spinouts from the academia. 

• It is required that the main applicant is willing to act as an ambassador for innovation within academia and engage younger researchers and the surrounding innovation ecosystem. 

 Co-applicant(s): 

• Co-applicants can be included in the project but are not required. 
• Co-applicants may come from the same hosting institution as the main applicant or from a different university, hospitals, or research institutions locally and abroad. 

Hosting Institution: 

• A Distinguished Innovator Grant must be administered by a non-profit organization. 
• A Distinguished Innovator Grant cannot be given to a company. 
• Projects from incubator development programs and projects where IPR is owned by a university’s holding institution, are eligible to apply if: 

• The administrating institution is the university 
• The project and its findings are anchored in academia 
• The project has not resulted in the establishment of a company (given company has not established a CVR/company number)

Project scope: 

The Distinguished Innovator project idea and focus must be directly linked to sustainability or to improving the lives of patients and health of people. Applications in which the project idea is not directly linked to such scope will receive an administrative rejection during the initial screening process of applications.  

The grant is pre-CVR. Hence, if a company is established during the grant period, Novo Nordisk Foundation shall be informed such that the funding for the rest of the grant period can be directed back to the foundation after the CVR number has been established.

Funding 

The total grant budget is DKK 95,2 million in 2023, to cover both the Health and the Sustainability areas.  

Each grant can be of maximum DKK 6,8 million for a period of 3 years.

Application process 

The application should be completed and submitted using the Foundation’s application system. 

It is important to carefully read the  Information and guidelines for applicants, accessed via ‘How to apply’ above, before initiating the application process, as this document contains the complete call, as well as detailed instructions for the application.